Friendly Competition
by SpaceCat010
Summary: Friendly competition; good for training rookies, practicing professionals, or just a couple of friends having a good time.
1. Chapter 1

_Hey everyone!  
This was a fun little idea I had while playing VR with some friends, so I thought I'd turn it into a short story.  
Enjoy!_

**_"Friendly Competition"_**

* * *

"Come on, Fox. Trust your instincts," Fox said to himself as he ran from building to building across the barren desert landscape. His adversary was nowhere to be seen, and that worried him. Running around out in the open was generally a risky move, but he had no other choice. Out of ammo and no grenades to toss around left him searching inside the abandoned houses of the desert town for a box of ammunition.

He walked past a downed helicopter on fire, the one that he made it out of when he crash landed. Someone in the seemingly abandoned town obviously didn't appreciate his presence, as he was greeted with gunfire almost as soon as he emerged from the wreckage. He'd been walking around for nearly ten minutes when he spotted a green case through the window of a nearby house.

Fox smirked, and started walking towards the building. Just then, a bullet came flying through the air and hit the wall next to him, barely missing his head by an inch. Fox rapidly ducked, and dove into the doorway. Crawling on the floor to stay below the open windows, he made his way to the large green box on top of a low wooden table in the corner.

_'Please don't be empty...'_

He opened the box, and was met with two rifle magazines, two pistol magazines, a smoke grenade, and a syringe with some turquoise liquid inside of it.

"Jackpot."

The orange vulpine pulled out a green-tinted rifle with the numbers _'1__62-0'_ scrawled onto the side of it, and popped a magazine in, putting the others in the pockets of his combat armor. Knowing that his opponent was probably watching the doorway, he climbed through the open window and jumped out onto the ground below. Fox ran around the backside to a building adjacent to the one he was in, and pulled out his binoculars.

Fox zoomed in all the way, and poured over the landscape in the distance until a blue pheasant looking through the scope of a DMR came into view. He lowered his binoculars, then pulled out his rifle.

"Get ready, Falco. I'm coming for you."

Fox took off into a sprint in between the buildings, making sure his adversary couldn't see him until the very last second.

* * *

"How long have they been going at this?" Slippy asked, staring up at the large viewing screen.

"Around fifteen minutes, why?" Krystal responded, not taking her eyes away.

"Aren't you getting tired of watching them?"

"Eh, not really," Krystal said. "It's actually kind of entertaining."

"Whatever floats your boat," the toad said, leaving the room.

Krystal could hear the thoughts of either of her teammates, each plotting their own strategy to take down one another.

Fox and Falco were holding pairs of small black devices formed to fit into their hands, both holding them like they were carrying rifles in place of them. They each stood strapped into large machines, held against a back plate by a set of buckles that was connected to a rotating swivel that ran around an octagonal base. Every time they took a step, the domular shape of the base slid their feet back to the center, making them feel like they were moving without actually going anywhere at all.

Oh, and they both had some dorky looking rectangles strapped to their faces. Fun.

"Come on, Fox. You can do this," the vixen chuckled quietly.

* * *

Falco sat (or rather knelt) atop a large hill, aiming down the scope of his sniper rifle. Even though his DMR was silenced, the contrast his blue feathers and the black sniper rifle against the yellowish-tan sands did't fare too well in his favor. He may have had the location advantage, but Fox blended in with the sand better than he did, knew the map better than he did, and just found an ammo box by the looks of it.

Speaking of which, Fox probably should've come out of the building by now.

Falco began glassing the landscape through his scope, trying to get a visual on Fox. He looked over every hilltop, through every window, around every house, and came up with absolutely nothing. Several minutes had passed, and the panic began to set in. His opponent likely knew exactly where he was, and he had no clue where his opponent was.

Spotting a good place to relocate to off to his right, Falco got up and began running down the rocky hill. Unfortunately for him, Fox had been crawling up the same hill he'd been on, and started chasing after him once he'd heard him on the move. Once Fox cleared the crest of the hill, his opponent came into view. Lining up his feathered friend through the red cross-hairs on his holographic sight, he pulled down on the trigger.

So there's this thing about foxes attacking birds...

Fox's gun let off several muted _ping_s as the lead flew out of his silenced battle rifle, connecting with Falco's body and dropping him to the sand. He may have incapacitated his opponent, but he wasn't done yet. Falco watched like a ghost staring at his own body as Fox came barreling down the hill, pulled out his sidearm, and aimed it at his body on the ground below him. He couldn't see his own limbs, so the experience was quite surreal.

Just before Fox pulled the trigger, he said something that was muffled by his deafened ghostly ears, but he could make the words out almost perfectly.

"Fox two, Falco zero," the vulpine said with a smirk.

Fox pulled the trigger, and a large _'VICTORY' _displayed itself in front of him, floating in mid-air as if it weren't really there. After standing triumphantly for around five seconds, his vision faded to black.

Fox placed his hands on either side of his face and pulled forward, lifting the VR headset off of his head as he let out a deep breath.

"Man, that never get's old!"

"Yeah, easy for you to say," Falco quipped as he removed the buckles holding him in place. "Too bad you can't beat me in an arwing."

"Really now?" Fox said with a sly smile. "Last I heard, there was 'something wrong with the G-Diffuser.'"

"Well done, both of you." Krystal said with a smile as she stood up from her chair. "Although I'm pretty sure you were told at a very young age to look both ways, Falco," she joked.

"Yeah... Well I can't exactly hear someone who's naturally build to be dead silent."

"Ya got that right!" Fox laughed as he stepped out of the machine. "Say... I'm getting kinda hungry. Anyone wanna go get something to eat?"

"Sounds good to me. That thing sure takes a lot outta me."

"You coming with us, Krystal?" Fox asked.

"I'd love to, Fox," the blue vixen replied, getting up to leave with her captain and their resident hot-shot pilot.

The Star Fox team swiftly exited the currently planetside _Great Fox II_ that evening and took off through Corneria City, searching for somewhere to eat without trying to get mobbed.

* * *

_Bonus points to any of you if you get the references.  
__Thanks for reading!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Don't worry, TimeWarp's coming. Just had this idea and wanted to get it out there. If you check my DeviantArt, it'll be pretty easy to tell what game this is._

* * *

"Honestly, I don't see what the problem is," Fox said as he tossed the metal frisbee over to Krystal.

The shiny, silver disc sailed through the air in a peculiarly straight path, giving off a shimmering beam of light from an electric ring in its center. As it left the vulpine's hand, the sides expanded outward to allow for more stability, rotating rapidly as the blue vixen readied a hand to catch the spinning disc flying towards her.

"If Delta wants to have a 1000-horsepower Viper that runs on beryllium, I'd say let him," he continued.

The azure vixen rolled her eyes and let out a small scoff. She caught the disc as its outer edges collapsed back to allow for easier handling.

"Oh gods, he told you about that, too?"

Fox grabbed onto a floating metallic structure nearby and pulled himself onto it as Krystal readied another pass to him. The disc sailed through the air back towards his open hand with the same effortless, free flight that it had when he passed it to her originally.

"Yeah, why?"

She was about to respond when a familiar voice cut through the air, causing the both of them to look over. Two figures, one blue and one green, floated over to them and grabbed onto the same metal beam as Fox.

"What's up with you guys," Falco asked nonchalantly. The avian floated up and pushed off the beam with his feet, doing a small flip before he reached the ceiling. He held a wing up as Fox threw the disc at him, the spinning metal emitting a small hum as it approached the pheasant's feathery digits. Falco caught the disc before doing a small spin and hurling it towards Slippy, who caught it with ease.

"Nothing much. Are we ready to start now," Fox asked. Each of his teammates sounded off their agreement, leading Fox to pull himself over a small control panel. As he neared the console, a few holographic buttons presented themselves. He pushed the button on the left, hearing a small beep emit from the panel as he floated back towards his friends. The four of them continued to pass the metallic frisbee to one another, until a semi-robotic voice sounded off in each of their ears.

_"Joining match."_

Fox watched as his vision slowly faded to black. When his sight returned, he found himself encased in a tube constructed of metal and glass. The vulpine looked up, spotting a steel handle sticking out above him. He grabbed the handle and pulled it down, hearing a small hiss as the hydraulic systems raised the glass panel away from the front of his pod.

As the front lifted upwards, Fox pushed off of the padded inner wall of the capsule, launching himself out into a small room. The entrances to five tubes with glass coverings were arranged on the far wall in the shape of a pentagon, all surrounding a currently empty scoreboard. Two teams were being pitted against each other; one orange, and one blue. A few moments later, the names of his teammates quickly populated the list. Krystal being his teammate, and Falco and Slippy on the opposing side.

The orange tod turned around, eyeing the area he had just come out of. Five capsules were arranged in a semi-circle, lining an indented area along the back wall. Suddenly, he heard the sound of a release latch opening, followed by the same hydraulic hiss that he'd become accustomed to. He watched as his wife effortlessly floated out of the pod, soon grabbing onto a floating polygonal structure similar to that in the lobby. Her gloved hands attached themselves onto the matte surface, bringing her to a stop as she turned to face her husband.

"You think they're going to beat us this time," she asked, her posh voice echoing slightly throughout the chamber.

"With how much Slippy's been playing recently, I'd say they have a fighting chance," Fox responded.

Truth be told, Slippy _had_ been playing a lot. Plenty of hours spent playing online matches, in many of which he'd get recognized, quickly led the toad to become one of the most easily-recognizable players- even if he used plenty of aliases.

Just then, a small chime rang out, signaling the start of the round as the glass covers slid open. A male voice began speaking from an unknown source not long after, counting down until the start of the match. Krystal turned around, pulling herself off of the structure and into the tube on the right. Fox quickly followed in after her, grabbing onto her shoulders as the vixen held onto an orange glowing ring around the inside of the tube.

They'd done this plenty a time, so performing the action of using the launch tubes had easily become second nature by that point. As the announcer's voice counted down from ten, a hologram displaying the countdown was shown on the glass cover at the end of the tube. Once the countdown reached zero, a holographic button displaying a hand and the word 'press' lit up in the center of the catapult ring.

The glass covering at the far end quickly slid open, allowing for a speedy exit from the tube. Fox tightened his grip on Krystal's shoulders as the azure vixen reached up and hit the button, before letting her hand continue downwards and return to the catapult as the two of them sped off through the tube and rocketed into the arena. As was routine, Krystal pulled off of the catapult towards the end of the tube. Fox quickly pulled himself in front of her, letting the vixen grab onto his back as he took in his surroundings.

More geometric shapes dotted the air, anchored in place by an unknown force as they waited for someone to grab onto them. The center of the arena had a large tunnel running along either side, and a disc sitting in the direct center of all of it; just waiting for some action. The vulpine felt his teammate pull off of him, leading him to grab onto her leg and continue the chain of grabs and pulls.

The two moved faster and faster towards the middle of the arena, building up more and more speed all the while. Fox looked to the center, in between two bowtie-shaped structures, and spotted the disc floating in midair. When he didn't expect to see, however, was that the amphibian had already reached the disc, and that the avian was soaring towards him with a cocky smirk on his beak and his fist pulled back.

Falco's closed fist emitted a bright blue glow, quickly illuminating the side of Fox's head as the bird's wing connected with his cranium.

"What the-?!"

Fox's exclamation was cut short by Falco stunning him and flying past, followed by a groan of pain as the tod felt the electricity jolt all over his body. Krystal, meanwhile, had put her hands up to her head, causing an orange glimmer to surround her head in anticipation of the avian's attack.

Thankfully for Krystal, the attack never reached her. However, there were more important matters to tend to as Slippy was nearing their goal. Without a second thought, Krystal had flexed her fingers slightly, causing a small pair of boosters to extend from either of her wrists. Not soon after, a booster mounted to a backpack that she was wearing activated, propelling her even faster. Fox quickly shook himself back awake and grabbed the azure vixen's foot as she passed by him, proceeding with the same procedure of building up speed as they booked it back to their side of the area.

Try as they might, the toad had already covered quite a fair distance. As the vulpine pulled off the vixen one last time, he held his hand out as he careened toward the toad, reaching for the disc. Unfortunately for the pair of foxes, the toad had already thrown the disc, and the metal frisbee was quickly flying into the orange diamond representing their goal.

_'Just how much has he been playing!?'_

Mere moments later, the disc finally reached its target. The disc stopped in midair once it reached the goal, along with the announcer calling out the event. A loud guitar riff boomed throughout the area, accompanied by a plethora of lasers shining all over the place.

Slippy turned and look at the others as they floated up towards him, his face plastered with a stupid grin as Fox rolled his neck, cracking a few vertebrae.

After a few moments of post-game smack talk, the vision of each of the four players' went dark, before resetting back to the pods in the launch rooms. Fox and Krystal quickly darted out of their pods and into the top launch tube, hearing the announcer begin the same 15-second countdown. This time, Fox was holding onto the catapult, and Krystal held onto his shoulders. As the countdown continued, he felt the familiar tingle of her sending him a thought run down the back of his head.

_'I'll run the right tunnel. Backup passing routine?'_

Fox broke his gaze from the disc just outside the tunnel, and shot her a smirk.

_'Deal.'_

The countdown hit zero and the two of them shot out of the tube, Krystal pulling off of Fox's back almost immediately after he reached the end of the tunnel. Fox flew a few meters forward and grabbed the floating disc, watching Krystal fly to the tunnel on the right side of the arena. The vulpine slowly advanced forward with the disc in his hands, expecting to see Falco come flying at him again.

Sure enough, a blue blur was gliding right towards him, eyeing the silver disc in his hands. The vulpine quickly reacted before the avian could reach him, flinging the frisbee over to Krystal. Fox once again saw a glowing fist flying towards him, causing him to put his hands up to his head out of reflex.

The pheasant let out a loud curse as the electricity bounced off his captain's block and shot right back into him, shooting him a glare in the process as he watched the vulpine dart away. The tod watched as his wife caught it with ease, before stopping on a bit of geometry about halfway across the arena from her. He watched as Slippy tried his hardest to snatch it out of her hands, though Krystal carried the grace of a dancer and the hit of a bulldozer. The vixen quickly grabbed off of the wall and dodged the toad's attacks, before flipping around and smacking him in the head - stunning him.

Just as she turned towards the goal, Falco was back on her tail. Unfortunately for him, Krystal quickly threw the disc over to Fox, who was already nearing the goal. After catching the frisbee and chucking it into the diamond, the same booming guitar riff accompanied by the announcer's voice rang throughout the arena.

The competitive smirk on Slippy's face told the two foxes everything they needed to know- they'd have to step their game up, and quickly.

/\\\/\\\/\\\

A little over three minutes had passed.

The score was still neck-and-neck. A close save and a few well-aimed passes had sent the game into overtime. The disc was now reset to the middle of the arena, and both teams were now in their launch rooms.

Just as the two vulpines had entered the right launch tube, Krystal had an idea.

"Fox, Wait."

The orange tod turned his head towards his wife, grabbing onto the inner wall of the tube to stop himself.

"What?"

The focused look on her face told him all he needed to know, causing his face to gain a small smirk as her eyes met his. Sure, it might have been cheap, but bragging rights were at stake here. If it meant Falco wouldn't be able to run his beak about beating them, Fox would do anything it took.

"Grab onto me. I want to try something."

Fox watched as she grabbed onto the inner wall of the tube, just a few feet before the catapult ring. The vulpine obliged her request and grabbed onto her shoulders, just now beginning to figure out what she was planning. As the countdown started, he felt the familiar tingle of her sending a thought to him run down the back of his head.

_'Pull off as soon as I go.'_

As soon as the announcer hit 'two,' Krystal pulled off. Fox got the idea, and started pulling off of her back to build up speed. The azure vixen quickly caught her husband's foot, pulling herself ahead of him. Just as she was about to hit the glass pane, however, the countdown ended. The two of them were now racing into the arena, and they could see their opponents were still twice the distance from the disc that they were.

Falco's cocky look was replaced with one of shock, unable to do anything as Fox slapped the disc forwards. Krystal shot ahead of him, taking the disc in her gloved hands as both Falco and Slippy let out their own yells of disbelief.

Fox floated on in smug triumph as Krystal quickly flew up to the goal. Just as she reached the edge of the floating metal diamond, she smacked the disc against the rim, letting the loud ding ring out across the arena. The vulpine let out a laugh as the frog and the pheasant tried their hardest to reach the goal.

Just as his opponents neared the vixen, she nonchalantly tossed the metal frisbee into the blue diamond, pushing off towards her husband as they laughed along with each other. A loud boom and a wave of confetti flew over the arena, scattering about the open air as the two teams started engaging in competitive banter.

After a few moments of back-and-forth, a ping sounded off from each of the Star Fox team's wrists. As they all checked their forearms, the reasoning for the interruption became clear. A routine patrol job, but one that still needed to be done.

The four of them each put their hands up near the sides of their faces, before pulling forward and lifting the VR headsets off of their heads. Fox quickly took in his surroundings, letting his eyes adjust to the bright lights of the Great Fox's rec room. A small cable ran from his headset, going up above his head and into a tall-standing structure behind his station.

The vulpine looked above him, spotting a small tray that the headset could fit into. After sliding the head-mounted display into its compartment, he slipped the straps off of his wrists and hung the controllers on a nearby hook.

Finally, he looked down to his chest, his furry hands already quickly undoing the plastic buckles that held him in place on the omnidirectional treadmill. He stepped out of the black vest, hearing his teammates quickly tailing behind him as they headed to the bridge.

"Better luck next time, Falco," Fox joked as they neared the elevator.

"Hey, just because you managed to pull off a faster launch during overtime doesn't mean you're any better," the bird squawked back.

The metallic doors slid open, and the four of them stepped inside.

"How did you do that, anyway," Slippy asked him as the vulpine pressed a button and the elevator lurched upwards.

"Ask her," Fox replied as he pointed to the resident telepath.

"I dunno, I guess we just got lucky," the vixen shrugged.

_'Sneaky vixen,'_ Fox thought to his mate.

Krystal merely shot him a smirk, batting her tail against him in response.

* * *

_Beryllium Gang for life._


End file.
